Questioner:

May Allah be good to you. If a scholar comes and visits a mosque of the People of Innovation, so some Salafis attend whilst others rebuke [this visiting]. What is your advice [regarding this] – may Allah bless you?

Shaykh Zayd ibn Muḥammad al-Madkhalī:

Firstly, it should be ascertained as to who this scholar knows of the People of Innovation from the well known groups of partisanship [Hizbiyyah] who are named with various group names. Since only two types of people would visit them;

1. A person who is ignorant of what they are upon
2. Or he is from them.

So you should, firstly ascertain if this visiting scholar is from the People of Sunnah or from the People of Innovation. When you have come to know of his reality, and it turns out that this scholar is from the People of Sunnah except that he is unaware of [the reality of] these people, go to him and ask him to come to your place. Advise him so that there isn’t any tribulation.

And if it turns out that he is from them, then search for someone else, for students of knowledge do not benefit from the People of Innovation, [because] even if they hear something [of knowledge] that is correct they will no doubt hear something that will harm them. So flee from the People of Innovation.

Questioner:

This visiting caller has already been advised by our Shaykh and this is his second visit which strengthens the ranks of the People of Innovation.

Shaykh Zayd ibn Muḥammad al-Madkhalī:

Therefore, whomsoever Allah has blessed with the adherence to the Sunnah and having knowledge of it, should not go to him nor to the people he is visiting due to the connection between him and them. So save yourself O’ student of the Sunnah and lover of it.